Pipeline effort is being renewed

By JOHN M. BRODER The New York Times

Tuesday

Feb 28, 2012 at 12:01 AM

Trans-Canada said Monday that it would reapply for a permit to build the Keystone XL pipeline from Canadian oil sands formations in Alberta to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico, assuring that the fiercely contested project will remain a source of political heat throughout the presidential campaign.

The company also said it would seek immediate permission to move ahead with the southernmost portion of the project, from Cushing, Okla., to the Gulf, in the hope that that part of the pipeline could be in service by the end of 2013. As a standalone project, the company said, the Gulf Coast portion of the pipeline would cost $2.3 billion and create about 4,000 construction and support jobs.

In January, President Barack Obama rejected the company's previous application to build the full pipeline, saying that a congressional mandate that he decide on the project by mid-February did not allow adequate time to complete environmental reviews.

He said that his action was not a final judgment on the project and invited the company to move quickly on the southern part of the 1,700-mile pipeline, which would transport domestic oil only and would not cross any international borders and thus would not require special approval from the State Department.

Republicans in Congress and on the campaign trail have harshly criticized the president's decision to block the pipeline, saying that it forfeited U.S. jobs and increase the country's dependence on imported oil.

Obama was squeezed from the other side by Democrats and environmental opponents of the pipeline, who contend that it encourages production of a particularly dirty sort of crude from oil sands and threatened sensitive lands and water sources along its route. Opponents mounted two large protests around the White House last year, calling for an end to the project.

The White House welcomed the company's decision to move forward with the Gulf Coast portion of the pipeline on Monday.

TransCanada said it would reapply for a presidential permit for the cross-border portion of the project while slightly altering the pipeline's route to avoid the most environmentally sensitive areas in Nebraska.

Bill McKibben, an environmental activist, author and scholar who organized some of last year's pipeline protests, said he opposed TransCanada's more limited current proposal.

"Even though this doesn't bring new oil in from the tar sands," McKibben said, "we stand with our allies across the region who are fighting to keep giant multinational corporations from condemning their lands. This fight is uniting people, from environmentalists to Tea Partiers, in all kinds of ways."

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